The Scriabin Society of America is excited to announce its Fall 2024 Gala, to take place at Steinway Hall in New York City on September 27th at 7pm. Pianists Marilyn Nonken and Irina Kataeva will present a duo recital featuring two-piano arrangements of Scriabin’s “Prometheus” as well as Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Here is what the duo have written about this program:

“This program explores the theme of sacrifice, as reimagined by foremost composers of the early 20th-century. Each musical composition traces a narrative of transcendence, brilliantly colored and dramatically conceived. While these narratives evoke different eras – ancient Greece, pagan Russia, and early Christianity – all explore spirituality and the relationship between violence and transformation.  

Scriabin’s tone poem, arranged for two pianists by the musicologist Sabaneev with the composer’s guidance, considers the self-sacrifice of the Greek god Prometheus, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humankind; fire would ensure the survival of the human race, yet, for his deception, Prometheus was doomed to eternal torment. Stravinsky’s ballet score reimagines a ritual of pagan Russia in which a virgin is sacrificed to appease the god of Spring; the young victim dances herself to death in exchange for Nature’s mercy. In Messiaen’s meditation on Christian themes, the agony of Jesus Christ is placed in context of redemption, love, and forgiveness – an ultimate sacrifice promising salvation.

These works chart journeys from darkness to light. Scriabin’s Promethée is originally scored for an innovative ‘color organ’ – in addition to orchestra, piano, and chorus – whose colorful rays he’d hoped would intoxicate the audience. Messiaen, like Scriabin, also associated colors with harmony; ‘when I hear music, I see corresponding colours,’ he wrote. ‘I think everyone possesses this sixth sense, but only a few discover it …  to see colours, each in his own way.’ At its premiere, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre shocked Parisian audiences with sensational colors: an orchestration at times bizarre and sensational, evoking a neo-primitive world of unprecedented brutality and grandeur.

Through music, listeners are led to contemplate the mystical and sublime.”